The Internet are an offshoot of Odd Future. This is an R&B group fronted by Syd the Kid, and the music is really delicate–almost easy-listening-sounding keys and a ropey bass line.

Syd’s voice is beautiful and soulful and she raps and sing delicately. Which is why it’s surprising that the first words of the first song are “now she wanna fuck with me / live a life of luxury.” But after the surprise of these lyrics the chill music is kind of soothing: “roll up an L and light it.” And I love her falsetto for the chorus”

“Under Control” is a song dedicated to her band: she promises she’ll be there for all of them “when I’m a legend baby and we’re all rich”

Her confidence and casualness is totally infectious. And I love the the wah-wahs effects on the keys as the song nears the end.

The last song is called “Dontcha” which gets a “yes!” from the crowd when she says she’s going to play it. (That makes her very happy). She says she’s never done an acoustic version before. I gather it’s a single, although I enjoyed the other two songs a bit more.

The veering into R&B territory is not my thing, but it’s cool to hear her branch into different genres in one song.

[READ: May 15, 2016] Bream Gives Me Hiccups and Other Stories.

I’ve really enjoyed the comic pieces that I’ve read by Eisenberg–he writes a lot for the New Yorker. In fact, I had recently decided that I would read and post about all of Eisenberg’s New Yorker pieces at some point in the future. Well, it turns out that nearly every one of those New Yorker pieces has turned up in this book (there’s three that didn’t). So that saved some time.

What that means is that most of these pieces are quite short. And that very few of them are stories in the conventional sense. They tend to be a few pages long, or sometimes longer pieces done as diary entries.

What is most interesting about Eisenberg’s writing is that most of these stories are funny–some are very funny–but there is also a lot of pathos and sadness in them. Many of the characters come from broken homes and many of the situations are rather bleak. And yet he manages to make them funny. (more…)